Meetings
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[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Good afternoon. This is the House Appropriations Committee. It is Monday, 01/26/2026. It is 02:50PM, and we are back having all thoroughly read the various bits and pieces of the budget adjustment bill that we're going to close out on today. And thank you to everyone for reading it. And thanks to those who found a couple of little tweaks, no major things, but a couple of things. So Grady is here to tell us what is changing in the language.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Thank you, Madam Chair. Grady Nixon, joint fiscal. So the first thing I will show the committee is just three minor changes related to the accountability court appropriations. On the updated version of the bill language that I emailed to the committee. The first one I'll show you is on page 26 of that updated document.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Did everybody get a copy of that document?
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Yeah. I believe I emailed the You
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: sent the house appropriations, didn't you? Out different No. From the other one in terms of page. It was sent on page on two forty one today. Yeah. Okay. I got it. If you have your email, but I I don't think the page numbers have changed. Okay. So if you wanna write in yours that you've got, that should be fine.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Okay. '26. Oh, yes. So on page 26 of that updated draft, you'll see in that sub three, which is a 500,000 appropriations to the agency of administration for reimbursement relating to the accountability core project. The words Chittenden County were removed. So now it reads community accountability core project expenses.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Yes. The Chittenden, is dealt with elsewhere. And this is the new 500,000 that we put in. To get the revenue forecast up to. Say for the reimbursement of community accountability court project expenses requested by other state entities. Correct.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: If the committee can scroll over to page 31, you'll see online beginning on line 12 of the new document, Similar language change just to make sure that the Chittenden County Community Accountability Court Project is referred to in the same way in both that sub FF and sub GG. So the wording for the court project was slightly different in the old draft, and now it's uniform in both of those instances.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: So this and all future ones will be called accountability court, where that was left off. So we just have a consistent name. So the first one says accountability court as opposed to pilot court?
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Correct. So they both now read Chittenden County Community Accountability Court projects. Moving on to page 33. You'll see a highlight beginning on line 18 and continuing on to line 19. This is just the minor tweak that the committee discussed today. So rather than say that the Department of Public Safety bring this sustainability plan, for the 2028 budget presentation, it's for the FY 2027 budget adjustment presentation.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: And
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: then continuing on to page 38, beginning on line seven and line eight, this is that child care contribution reserve language. Just two minor things to point out for the committee. The section of statute where this is being added, I think I flagged for the committee in the past. It was proposed as three zero eight. There's a current three zero eight d in statute that is repealed, but still shows up on VSA. So this is just slotting it into a new three zero eight f just to avoid any conflict or confusion there. And then on the bottom of that page, you'll see highlighted language that, Emily and myself alluded to earlier, where on Friday, we had shown the committee language that would just clarify that these funds need to be, not just reserved and unreserved, but then transferred out of the general fund to the child care contribution special fund. This was just a technical tweak to that. So the language changed slightly, it's to achieve the same end. It's just the technical fix to make sure that that is comporting more accurately with actual tax practice.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: I thought that that looks the same as what's in our
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Yeah. Oh, sorry. Oh, just think this morning I didn't show it to the committee.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: I see. Okay. But it's not different from our paper thing. It wasn't anything we found.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: No, no change since this morning. It just hadn't we hadn't actually shown Great. It to you
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Thank you.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: I think that those were all the updates in the language.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: And I know Tiff went over the recovery centers to make sure the numbers were right for each one, so we don't go through that again. You know, we had the housing assistance, that looks fine. Pilot fund, the payment reform, which is a placeholder. They will be on that in the Senate to make sure it moves along. On behalf of funding. Yeah, that was done the way Yeah. It was requested. Tom, Mike, Lynn, anybody online have any questions or comments or anything else at this point from your end?
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: I'm all set, thank you.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Great. Good. Well, if I'm not hearing any further discussion, first thank you all for the Francisco office for making the changes, hanging out with us, taking the big time to join us and at least it was a less complicated one than we've had in other years. So that's good news. So I believe that it is time for us to officially vote. So excited. It wasn't a joke about voting. We're actually going to vote for a reason not to. So this is the vote that counts. And so if I could, I'll entertain a motion to approve the Budget Adjustment Act for FY twenty six. John? Keith? That's option. Okay. Is there a second? Wayne? Thank you very much. Any further discussion? Okay. Seeing none, the clerk may call the roll.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Representative Bluemle? Yes. Representative Dickinson?
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Yes.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Representative Feltus? Yes. Representative Kascenska? Yes. Representative Laroche?
[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: Yes. Representative Raulicki? Yes. Representative Nigro? Yes.
[Michael Nigro (Member)]: Representative Squirrell? Yes. Representative Stevens? Yes. Representative Yacovone?
[David Yacovone (Member)]: Yes. And representative Scheu?
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Yes. Eleven zero. Great. Excellent work, everybody. Thank you so much. This will be on the floor Thursday and Friday. Would anybody besides me like to write do this report and sit on the floor? Speak now? We let you do it. Be prepared for, yes, two things. Be prepared if there are questions, to stand up because I will yield to you or possibly Teresa if need be. And then Tip had a good idea. Do you want to So suggest if there's something that is some change in one of your budgets that you think needs explanation, Robin will give her a couple lines, two, three lines that she can use and send it under the header or the name of department, the the section and what you And most of them are not, but if there's something that was a little behind, if any of the rest of you, as you're looking through your work, if you see something that you know, is pretty minor, some of you are going be off the hook on this one, but others of you may have a couple of things where you might just want to say, you know, here's the explanation, I can throw that into the floorboard in some fashion or whatever if I need to. Otherwise, Trevor and I will finish up the clerk work. And we are going to meet Autumn, do we have 09:30 tomorrow morning set now? Yes, we do. We're gonna hear that bill. I think it's $8.06 78. Or $6.48 or something. Yeah, $6.48 maybe. So we got a bill by mistake. But once we got it, now we have to look at it. So tomorrow morning, had a blank spot, so it seemed like the appropriate time to just, we'll clear our head of this. We'll get this bill in and out. Maria Royal, the alleged counsel, is going to tell us about it. I think it's a banking and insurance bill. So Tom, this will probably be yours. Tom again?
[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: Why would that be me? That a
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Don't you have ACCD? No. Who's that? Is that treasurer?
[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: Oh, I have ACCD. Yeah, sure.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: I'm not sure which one it's gonna be. It might be Lynn. It might be you. It might be Not me. It's not Tiff. Okay. Not it. I don't know. We haven't looked at it. Has anybody had time to look at it? No. We'll figure it out. But I'm not sure who it's gonna be. We'll we'll learn when we find out about So be here at 09:30 tomorrow morning, and we'll go over that bill, and then we'll get back on track with just focusing on the FY '27 budget. Okay? And then will we go to the floor? Depends on if we get out on time or not, but we will have caucuses, and Marty and I will be talking about the budget adjustment with your help at caucuses tomorrow morning, and then we'll be back on. So keep looking at the agenda because Autumn will be updating it. But assume 09:30 tomorrow morning. Okay, Mike?
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Madam Chair, when do you expect the budget adjustment will be on the floor?
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Thursday and Friday.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Thank you.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Lynn? Yeah, if it's a DFR bill for banking, that would be out of the Commerce Committee. Nobody has DFR though. Who has DFR?
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Oh, DFR.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: Might be Mike Nigro. He just woke up.
[Grady Nixon (Joint Fiscal Office)]: Yeah. Yeah.
[Robin Scheu (Chair)]: He's still back at Sugarbush. Oh, yes. We will Ready. You. Yes. I'm not quite sure. Yes. It may just be DFR, but Yeah. We will learn it all tomorrow. Alright. I think we're all set. Thank you, everybody.